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How to Tame an Earthquake (Analogue)

Description: 

Subsurface fluids are important to earthquake physics since they influence every phase of the earthquake cycle: from inducing earthquakes, generating slow slip, dynamically weakening a fault, to producing afterslip. Despite this prominent role, comparatively little thought has been directed toward intentionally controlling fault slip. I take the spring-slider as the simplest analogue for an earthquake and train a deep reinforcement learning agent to design fluid injection that reins-in slip motion. These reining algorithms can mitigate stick-slip instability via a three-step process. First, by injecting to induce slip nucleation; second, by harnessed withdrawal that governs slip speed; third, by injection-driven steady-state sliding. I discuss the relevance to prior studies, implications for induced seismicity mitigation, and future potential for earthquake control. These results suggest that earthquake (analogues) could be tamed with carefully designed injection policies.

Session: Seismic Monitoring, Modelling and Management Needed for Geothermal Energy and Geologic Carbon Storage - II

Type: Oral

Date: 5/2/2024

Presentation Time: 10:45 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Ryan

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors